My understanding is that TM is used to describe the effects of spinal cord inflammation that is experienced on both sides of the body. Symptoms usually begin in the feet and spread upwards first with numbness followed by other sensations (for me it is burning pain). That is quickly accompanied by spasms in the affected areas. The symptoms are due to a lesion at a certain level or levels in the spinal cord.

My experience is that it feels like the body is being slowly dipped feet first into cool but liquid wax (deadening of feeling and heaviness), and then it feels like the wax starts to heat up and burn to the bone by the 3rd or 4th day. That sensation stops at a certain level; usually at the abdomen or the chest depending on the spinal levels of the lesion. The sensation of numbness or burning may stay or go, but symptoms usually progress to include muscle spasms and severe cramping in the legs, torso and chest.

The spasms, cramping and pain build in intensity over a period of several weeks and then level off and hang around for a while; or they may begin to abate and pretty much go away after around 8-12 weeks. A bout of TM may leave symptoms behind if there has been nerve/myelin damage once the acute phase is over.

In my case, it can take a couple of years for a cycle of TM to come on and then abate so that what is left becomes stable. I'm coming up to the two year mark on this my 4th go round; but thankfully the symptoms I have experienced are not usually as intense as some people have described experiencing; especially those who experience a bout of TM over the course of a few months.

In comparison, I believe that myelitis is a term to describe inflammation of the spinal cord with variable symptoms depending on where the lesions are. It sounds like you experienced a form of myelitis.

With love, Erika